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Geometric systematization of the constellations — Eudoxus of Cnidus

~366 BC · Transmission: Global
AstronomyTreatiseGreek

Eudoxus of Cnidus writes Phenomena (lost), a prose treatise describing constellations and their arrangement on the celestial sphere. Statistical analysis of the surviving rising/setting data (via Aratus and Hipparchus) places the origin of those observations around the 3rd millennium BC, a much older and geographically debated origin (Minoan? an archaic Indo-European/Near Eastern substrate?), not necessarily late Mesopotamian.

InstitutionPlato's Academy
Historical regionCnidus, Asia Minor (with observations made in Egypt)
Primary sourceFragments preserved in Hipparchus's Commentary on the Phenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus (original work lost)
Secondary sourceLasserre, F. — Die Fragmente des Eudoxos von Knidos (1966)
Original languageAncient Greek
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